


The Founders

by peculiaredwardiancat



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Cats, New Writer, Non cannon - Freeform, OCs - Freeform, Original Cat Clans (Warriors), Original Characters - Freeform, as far as nightpelt, but there will be - Freeform, no relationships so far, oc clan, original characters fic based on warriors, reference to characters, sorry i dont know how to tag, they wont get their apprentice names until at least the second chapter, this starts a bit slow, uncanonical character background, warriorcats
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:02:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23455228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peculiaredwardiancat/pseuds/peculiaredwardiancat
Summary: Four kittens grew up as kittypets learning of their father, and the clan of which he was a part of. After a family tragedy, the four of them are forced into the wild. With only each other and a long dead medicine cat to guide them, they search for their new home. Which might not be the one they had expected.





	The Founders

**Author's Note:**

> Hello~  
> this is my first work in this fandom, but a story that has been a long time in the making. If there are any grammatical or spelling errors I apologize, let me know and I'll fix them right up.  
> As warning for those reading ahead, this chapter deals with sibling loss, and is rather emotional.  
> And as this is an oc fic, most of the characters are my own. However I do use some characters from the book, but primarily in non cannon ways.  
> Without any further blathering, enjoy~

Hugh snuggled closely with his siblings, eagerly anticipating his mother’s next words.  
“Your father saved my life, that is how we met,” she purred. “I was near the edge of the sky-grate, because there was a blue jay on the rail below. But I got to close, and before I even realized, I’d slipped over the edge!”  
Hugh held his breath. Beside him he felt his sister stiffen. Their mother stared down at them warmly. Hugh considered how squished he and his siblings were compared to a moon ago. Soon they’d be too big to sleep in the box nest together like they were.  
“But your father heard me yell out, and helped my back up.” Hugh imagined his father, swooping in to save his mother with no thought got his own safety. His chest fur puffed with pride for his dad.  
“What did he look like?” Pansy always asked their mother this question. All the kits knew the answer, but turned their eyes towards her anyway. Hugh loved this part the best, since he more closely resembled their father than any of his other siblings.  
“Well, he was all black, and had lots of scars-.”  
“Because he was a clan cat,” Darcy interrupted. Pansy batted at his belly.  
“Shush!”  
Evelyn purred. “Indeed he was kits. He came from a place called Shadowclan; a place where noble and strong cats lived together in a pine forest.”  
“Don’t forget the weird names,” this time it was Tilly, though she was already half asleep.  
“That’s right, names were very important in the clans. If you had the word ‘star’ in your name, for example, it meant that you were leader of one of the clans.”  
“What was dads’ name?” Hugh finally spoke up. His mother looked at him warmly, and he wondered if she thought of his dad when she did. With Hugh’s long black fur, similar in color to him, but stark opposite of her light cream fur.  
“His name was Nightpelt,” Evelyn purred. “And one day when you four are older, you’ll pick out clan names just like his.”  
Darcy hopped onto his four paws. “I’ll earn my name right this instant! I can hunt, and fight.”  
“Hunt what, our stuffed mice?” Hugh batted back playfully. His brother opened his mouth, no doubt to deliver a sharp retort, but was silenced with a flick of Evelyn’s ears.  
“Later my kits,” Evelyn purred. “For now, it’s time to sleep.”

Hugh watched out the window curiously. It was one of his favorite spots, because he could see so far in nearly every direction, but he was protected from a fall like his mother almost had. The thought sent a shiver down his spine and fluffed his coat.  
“Why are you always up there?” He heard Pansy call to him form below. She was crouching by the counters edge, her black and white patchwork floor standing out sharply against the pale wood of the floor.  
“I like being so close to the sky,” he replied.  
“Well, I think it’s weird,” Darcy butted in. “All the wild cats in moms stories lived under trees or reeds.”  
“You’re forgetting about Windclan,” Hugh reminded him, giving up the windowsill to rejoin his siblings.  
“Whatever,” Darcy flicked his ear. Turning to call out to Tilly, who was snuggled with their mother on a sofa across the room, he asked if she wanted to play with them. Tilly’s response was to snuggle into her mother’s underbelly even further. She had the closest matching pelt to their mother, and so Hugh could hardly distinguish the two of them from each other.  
“Catch the mouse?” Asked Pansy, hooking the nearby toy on her claw.  
“We always play hunting,” Darcy complained. “We should practice our fighting!”  
“Providing for your clan is supposed to be the most noble of jobs for a warrior!”  
Catching sounds from behind the door across the room, Hugh was distracted from his siblings squabbling. It sounded like their twolegs, probably come to check on the kittens. His mother had told them before that there were more rooms on the other side, only the twolegs wouldn’t let the kittens see until they were older, to keep them safe. And so the Hugh only saw them when they came to check on their food or replenish their water. Sometimes one of the two would reach down and rub their ears, which felt great, and was Hugh’s favorite thing about the twolegs.  
Pansy and Tilly liked them less than their brothers did. Once Hugh woke up to the two of them missing. They were gone nearly the whole day, and when they got back they swore that the twolegs had put them in a hard gray box, to a place with bad smells and weird looking animals. Hugh and Darcy hadn’t believed them until Evelyn confirmed her daughters words.  
“It’s called the vet,” she explained. “It’s a scary place, but it is safe, and you’ll be brought back home. Soon enough I expect you boys to go as well.”  
Since then Darcy had been more cautious around their twolegs. He’d run away if they got to close, and clawed at them if they tried to pick him up.  
“It’s not natural,” he insisted. “You should only take medicine from other cats. The forest cats have their medicinecats; they don’t go to the vet.”  
Hugh felt amused by his brother’s antics. Darcy was certainly the spunkiest out of the four of them, and easily the most devoted to their warrior lineage. Although the thought of the vet was scary, Hugh resolved that he’d be brave when the time came. If Pansy and Tilly survived the vet, than I can to. He told himself, thinking mostly of Tilly, the more fearful of his two sisters.  
The sound of the twolegs behind the door grew louder, catching his siblings attention.  
“The twolegs are here!” Pansy called out to their mother and sister, running to the door with Darcy. Evelyn followed shortly, with Tilly following sleepily at her paws.  
“It sounds like there is a bunch more of them,” Darcy pointed out.  
“There might be; sometimes they invite other twolegs into their dwellings to visit.” Evelyn turned to survey them with a critical eye. “Alright my kits, I want the four of you on your best behavior. We want to show the new twolegs that you’ve been raised well.” She sent a pointed look in Darcy’s direction.  
The door creaked open slowly, silencing his protest. Hugh steeled himself as the first twoleg slowly walked in, making sure to leave no gaps in the door for them to run through, followed closely by two others. One familiar, the other not. The unfamiliar twoleg coed at Hugh and his family. Feeling his pelt tickle from the attention, he couldn’t help himself but to scamper a few feet away. He let his fur flatten out again in relief when the twoleg refocused its attention on Pansy, who (never the shy one) had wandered up to sniff its brightly colored pelt.  
“What happens now?” Hugh peered up at his mother, who had calmly joined him by his side. She gave him a comforting lick on the ear.  
“I know how easy it is to be shy when you’re the center of someone’s attention, but it will soon lose interest in us, within a minute or so,” she purred comfortingly. Hugh leaned into her. “And when it does, I’ll show you how to get its attention again.”  
Except the new twoleg never did lose interest in the kittens. Hugh could see Evelyn thought it was odd when it sat on the ground to play with his other siblings, under the observation of the other two. Pansy and Tilly interacted with it with abandon, while Evelyn got a quick pet to the ears before being ignored. Darcy stayed far away from the new edition. He flinched and hissed whenever it reached for him, and he retreated to a spot under a nearby cushion. Hugh observed this, and went to speak with him.  
“You don’t think that it’s weird?” Darcy’s eyes narrowed. “This whole thing feels off.”  
He’s right, it does feel weird. The other twolegs never payed this much attention to us, and it doesn’t seem to care about mom. Hugh shifted his wait from paw to paw, choosing to stay silent rather than answer his brother. The entire situation left him uneasy, he for a moment he found himself wishing to call out to his sisters to back away from it. Instead, he found the words to answer his brother. “Evelyn said that its okay.”  
Darcy merely flicked his ears in disagreement. Realizing that was the best he could hope to get out of his brother for the while, he took his leave. His uneasiness seemed to have been amplified after finding out that his brother shared his misgivings, and so he took solace at his window spot, to observe the others from a safe distance.  
Pansy had no such reservations, and for a while she made a game of weaving around the newcomer, and played with the colorful and stringy bright pelt the twoleg wore around its neck. Eventually, however, she grew bored as the twoleg refocused on Tilly, who had curled in its lap and was purring contently at the nest she’d found for herself. So she gravitated closer to Evelyn, and soon found a new game playing with her flicking tail.  
With sudden energy, the twoleg stood, except it kept hold of Tilly in one oddly long and furless paw. Tilly let out a frightened mew at the sudden height in which she had gained. Alarm raced through Hugh’s body, but he couldn’t say exactly why. He saw Evelyn rise to her own paws sharply. Her beautiful blue eyes were wide and her pupils narrowed with cautious anxiousness, and a tense posture.  
“Where are they taking Tilly?” he felt his tail begin to quiver, and heard his mew sharpen with fear as it dawned on him that something indeed might actually be wrong.  
The twolegs stood still for a moment, speaking with each other in their high pitched, wailing voices. And then they were leaving the room, Tilly still in grasp.  
Hugh raced off of the windowsill in a panicked pursuit. Evelyn was already ahead of him, chasing after the twolegs with Darcy at her paws.  
“Tilly,” she called desperately. “Tilly, jump down darling!”  
“Help me!” Tilly writhed in the air, trying fruitlessly to wriggle out of the twolegs heavy grasp. Hugh saw his mother reach the twoleg and jump against its leg. It let out a sharp yelp, and pushed her back sharply with its foot.  
As the door shut with Tilly on the other side, Hugh skidded to a stop, heart pounding in his ears. He watched with eyesight fuzzy around the edges as Evelyn braced against the door, as Darcy scratched at the bottom of it. As Pansy reached her mother and brother, and looked about her wildly, hoping to be told what she needed to do.  
What just happened?!

Evelyn didn’t move from the door. Hugh tried with no avail to get his mother’s attention, to get her to eat or drink or lay down. And by the next morning, Tilly had yet to return. So instead Hugh and his siblings went on as normal. They tried to eat, and they slept. None of them asked to start a game, the atmosphere was too thick.  
“Maybe she just had to go to the vet again,” Pansy suggested hopefully. Neither of her brothers answered. Hugh felt that there was something big to be said between the three of them. Something scary, and though he was sure all three were thinking of it, none of them wanted to hear it said out loud.  
I don’t think Tilly’s going to come back…  
When their twolegs came to refill their water and food bowls, Evelyn tried to dart around them. They grabbed her around her middle, and placed her a few feet away, shutting the door again behind them. When they’d done their business, they left, careful to keep Evelyn from trying to slip through again. But there had been no sign of the unfamiliar twoleg, and no sign of Tilly.  
Guilt settled heavily in Hughs stomach as he recalled the panic in his sisters eyes, and how he had frozen up while his mother and Darcy had raced to Tilly’s rescue. I should’ve done more to help her.  
“They said that this would happen.”  
Hugh and his siblings looked at their mother in surprise. She looked dreadfully defeated sitting near the door which had swallowed up her daughter. Pansy stood to go comfort her, and with only slight hesitation, Hugh followed. Her long fur felt familiar and comforting in this shared moment of distress, and he relished in it. Closing his eyes, Hugh let himself believe for the moment that it was night once more. His three siblings curled up on either side of them in the box nest they had so soon after outgrown, and their mother curled around them all, telling them stories of their father, Nightpelt, and the wild cats that lived in the forests and moors.  
“What’s going on?” Pansy sounded miserable, scared. He could hear the fear mounting in her meow. He withdrew reluctantly so as to be able to see Evelyn’s eyes, expecting her to answer. But she didn’t, at least, not right away. He could see her posture looked stiff, her eyes dull. Her long and feathery tail twitched and quivered with anxiety.  
“They told me my twolegs would take you away from me,” she slumped where she sat. Her ears flattened against her head in grief. “I didn’t believe them. I told them that my twolegs would never do such a thing.”  
Darcy wandered over, tail fluffed out but held high nonetheless. “Who?” he demanded to know. Hugh flinched at the sharpness of his tone. Couldn’t he see how much pain their mother was in? Evelyn responded by glancing up at him sharply, as if surprised to see him there. Her eyes focused better, and she rubbed against him soothingly. But her voice still ached when she spoke again.  
“Farmer and Spot, they said you’d be taken away from me.”  
Farmer and Spot knew this would happen? Hugh hadn’t met their neighbors before. He and his siblings were still too young for the twolegs to let them out on the sky-grate, after all. But he’d heard his mother talk about them often enough to recognize their names.  
“I’m so sorry, my kits,” she mewed, drawing the three of them close to her with her tail. Hugh crouched down in futile effort to relieve some of the weight which crashed onto his shoulders with his mother’s apology.  
“She’s-,” Pansy began, but choked on her own words.  
Say it out loud Pansy. I can’t, I wish I could so that you don’t have to, but I can’t.  
“Tilly isn’t coming back, is she?”  
No one answered. No one needed to answer. Hugh sneaked a glance at his brother, but Darcy was looking ahead resolutely with a black face. He could see Pansy shaking as she leaned on Evelyn for support. He could see the heartbreak in his mother’s eyes. Pale with the aftermaths of a serious shock, heavy with grief. Unable to look at any of them any longer, he buried his nose into her fur. Images of Tilly’s face flooded his mind.  
“This isn’t what your father had wanted,” Evelyn meowed, barely a whisper.  
What do we do now?

No one said a word for the rest of the day. When the twolegs came to check on them again, no one went to greet them. Not even Evelyn. None of his siblings wanted to get close. Finally they left, and Hugh felt some of the tension seep out of his muscles with their departure.  
He found himself once more at his window spot. This time he watched the ground, rather than the vast sky. He studied it, examining everything that he saw move closely. Sure he’d see some sign of his sister, yet knowing that he never would again.  
And when night fell, the four of them silently curled up close to each other to sleep. Drawing comfort from knowing that the other was still with them. When Hugh drew his tail over his eyes to drown out the remaining light leaking through the windows, he saw Evelyn still wide awake, watching over the remainder of her litter diligently. Feeling slightly better with that observation, Hugh let his grief be devoured by sleep for the night.  
Only to be awoken, what felt to him, only minutes later by a sharp jab on his flank.  
Pansy was poised next to him, paw still raised as if she was considering striking him again. Instead, she pawed at his ears. “You’re a heavy sleeper, did you know?”  
“I’m up,” he snapped and shook her paw away. A glance around told him that is was about dawn. Darcy and Evelyn were no longer curled up next to him. “What’s going on?”  
Pansy nodded to where the other two were already gathered, a few feet away from the door to the sky-grate. “Mom wanted me to wake you; she needs to speak with us right now.”  
Hugh shook off the remainder of sleep and with his sister padded over to greet the others. When they had settled in next to Darcy, Evelyn began to speak.  
“This is very important kits, so you need to pay attention and don’t dose off,” she began. “I need to admit to you three, and to myself, that I- I have been selfish. And losing Tilly… Having Tilly taken from us has made me realize that.”  
“You haven’t been-,” Evelyn placed a paw gently on Darcy’s head to quiet him. Her face seemed grim in the low light, and Hugh shivered.  
“Your father and I always wished for you to be clan cats. You have always been destined to rejoin with the other half of your kin, to live a free life with the. It has been clear since the day that you were born.”  
Nerves jittered through Hugh at the way his mother spoke. As if she was stalling bad news, or perhaps making sure that when she did say whatever it was that she really had to tell them, that they’d understand. Hugh wished he had sat in a different place, so that he wouldn’t have to look at her directly. That he might be able to avoid her gaze.  
“As the moons have passed, I thought I could keep you here. That perhaps we could form our own type of clan, one that was safe and protected, and provided for.” Pansy and Darcy exchanged glances.  
“But now I see that I won’t be able to keep you safe anyway. Nor can I keep you here, not when others can so easily take you away. And wherever they take you, you’ll be separated.” She met their eyes in turns. Hugh couldn’t hold eye contact any longer; he looked at his paws. “There would be no chance of any of you becoming wild cats or reconnecting with your father’s clan. Either you’d be too far away or maybe locked up. But more than likely, you would be stripped of that choice.”  
Stop talking, please stop talking like you’re going to say goodbye.  
“With that being the case…”  
Don’t say it, be quiet.  
“I think the three of you will have to leave now, to go find the clans and become warriors. Before you can’t,” she finished.  
None of them said a word. Pansy was staring blankly at Evelyn. Darcy also stared at her, but his eyes were alight with excitement. Hugh felt his paws quivering, and so he kneaded the rug to distract himself. To attempt to focus on one of the several thoughts running through his mind at rabbit speed. What are we supposed to say?  
“But I don’t want to leave you,” Pansy finally broke the silence. Evelyn wordlessly drew her closer and gave her head a comforting lick. But she herself seemed unable to get out any words. Thankfully, Darcy filled the silence for her.  
“We don’t have to!” he stood up excitedly. “Mom can just come with us!”  
Hugh raised his head to watch his Evelyn’s expression closely, and so he saw before his brother the sadness which inhabited her eyes. He understood immediately what she was soon to say.  
“Mom?” Pansy pleaded for a response.  
“My precious kits,” Evelyn’s legs buckled beneath her and so she crouched down, unable to withstand the weight her very own words were laying on her. “I wouldn’t survive in that life. I’m different than you and your father are. I’m not as strong.”  
“You are,” Hugh heard himself say, and he hated how much his mew trembled. He stood on shaky paws and walked up to Evelyn to touch his nose to hers. The way the forest cats would touch noses with their new mentors in apprenticing ceremonies.  
“This is goodbye then,” Pansy croaked.  
“We’ll come to visit! After we have our warrior names, we’ll be big and strong! And we’ll come back, we-,” Darcy faltered. His tail twitched in what was probably the first show of agitation that Hugh had ever seen from his littermate.  
Evelyn purred warmly, and they all ignored the hoarseness of her voice when she said “You must. You wouldn’t leave your mother wondering about your new names forever, would you?”  
She rose to her paws, and her kits followed her gaze out the window. The sky was noticeably lighter than it was before.  
“You must go now, my kits. The twolegs might be back soon.”  
They followed her sullenly to the small opening of the door to the sky-grate. It was, and had been for the length of Hugh’s life, blocked by a sheet of metal webbing. Yet with only slight difficulty, Evelyn hooked her claws on it and tore it away so there was room enough for them to fit through. She nodded at Darcy to go through.  
Which he did, with no hesitation, no sign of fear. Pansy went through next, although more cautiously than her brother had. The hanging flap rocked in her absence.  
Hugh walked up to the doorway, but couldn’t help but stop. On the other side he could hear the wind howling and the noise of a thousand creatures and dangers he had never before had to face in his full six moons of life. The noise of the city, promising a way to the wild. He glanced back up at his mother.  
“Can’t I stay with you?” he pressed.  
“You’d only be taken away,” Evelyn said. Hugh wished he could argue, think of some reason he had to stay with his mother, to keep her from looking so sad.  
“I’m scared,” he admitted instead.  
“I know my kit. But your sister and brother will need you,” she brushed her cheek against his warmly. “You are so important, and you’ll be magnificent out there. I know you will be. And if you do need to come home, I’ll be here for you to return to.”  
Hugh savored the comfort of his mother for the last time. He cast a glance around the room which for so long had been his entire world. He thought of Tilly, who he so dearly wished was with them. And with a shaky breath, and his mother following closely behind him, he took his first steps into the outside.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this chapter keep an eye out for updates, and be sure to drop a kudo or comment  
> thanks for reading~


End file.
